Double Take
by Mindy35
Summary: Jack/Liz. Jack has reservations about Liz's fiance.


Title: Double Take

Author: Mindy

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: Tina's, and what she puts us through!

Spoilers: nope.

Pairing: Jack/Liz, Liz/Other.

Summary: Jack has reservations about Liz's fiance.

-x-x-x-

"Liz, please come in."

Jack's subdued tone and his use of her first name instantly puts her on edge. So instead of strolling up to his desk as she normally would and leaving the door ajar, Liz shuts the door behind her and takes a few steps inside.

Jack gestures to the couch with one hand. "Please. Sit."

"Okay…" she murmurs, matching the quietness of his tone with hers.

Jack takes a seat opposite her, adjusts his jacket and clears his throat. "I have something I want you to take a look at," he says, then points to a folder sitting on the otherwise empty coffee table.

Her eyes remain on him. "What's this?"

Jack's eyes drop to the file, sliding it across the table to her with two fingers. "Please."

She leans forward to open the file, scanning a few pages before looking up, brows knit. "What is this, Jack?"

"Read it," is all he says, voice low.

"Is this…" She shakes her head slowly: "Is this what I think it is?"

"Most likely," he replies with a nod.

Liz pauses, looking at him from the corners of her eyes. "Jack...what have you done?"

Jack shifts in his chair. Then replies simply: "I had Len look into a few things."

"You did a background check on my boyfriend," she states bluntly. She looks down at the folder, flicking at the corners of the papers with her fingertips: "You have…a whole file of _stuff_… on my _boyfriend_."

"He is not just your boyfriend," Jack explains evenly: "You are considering marrying this man."

"Yes. I am," she says, taking off her glasses: "and if there's anything to tell, Jack, I'd prefer to hear from him."

He lets out a breath. "Will you just read it?"

"No! I won't." She pushes the file away, leaning back into the couch and folding her arms. "I don't want to know _anything_ that's been dug up by that letch. I don't _believe _you've done this. This is as good as peeking through my bedroom windows."

"Don't be over-dramatic."

She narrows her eyes at him. "Why would you do this?"

Jack stalls a moment. "I was concerned. I was looking out for you. It's what friends do."

"No-no--" She leans forward again, stabs a finger on the file on the coffee table. "This _isn't_ what friends do, Jack. This is…I don't even know what it is. But you had no right. You don't know _a thing_ about him."

"Exactly," he nods. "I wanted to find out."

She rolls her eyes, re-crosses her arms. "Well, you could've just asked him. You barely said a word to him the other night."

"I couldn't get a word in," he points out. "You scarcely drew breath all evening."

"I was nervous," she snaps. "I thought you wouldn't like him."

"I don't," he answers, without hesitation.

"You made that pretty clear," she mutters, initiating a heated silence.

"Regardless of whether or not I like the man," Jack continues after a long moment: "I don't trust him. I don't believe he's been completely honest with you--"

"Well, _who is_ when they're dating?"

"He's taking advantage of you."

She makes a face, lips twisting into a grimace. "How, Jack? _How_ is he taking advantage of me? By loving me? By…having sex with me? By _proposing _to me, promising to give me babies? Is that--?"

"Yes!" he insists, his voice now rising to match hers. "He _knows_ you want all those things. He knows you're _desperate_ for all those things."

She shoots him a dark look. "Gee thanks, Jack."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Sure you did."

He shifts forward in his seat, murmuring: "Lemon. You know I want you to have all those things. Of course, I do. Just--"

"Just not with him," she finishes for him, her tone bitter. She shakes her head back and forth. "You always do this, Jack. You always _do this_ when I find someone I really like."

He blinks at her. "Do what?"

"Find some way to…" she grits her jaw, her wrath tapering out.

Jack straightens his spine, studying her. "Do you think I _like_ seeing you like this?"

Her eyes lift, bewildered and exasperated. "What, Jack, _happy_?"

"I don't want to see you make a mistake. And I don't want to watch you marry the wrong man."

Liz doesn't look appeased. Or convinced. "How _do you_ know he's the wrong man?"

"How do _you know_ there isn't someone better for you?"

She lets out a breath that is more like a sad laugh, her eyes dropping to her lap. "I'm thirty-eight, Jack." She pauses. And when she goes on, her voice is both sharp and soft: "I've never been married, never even been close to being married. I want that, Jack. And he wants me. And if there is someone better out there for me, he hasn't shown up so far." She cocks her head at him, fixes him with a look: "How many times have you told me how unlikely it is for a woman my age to get married? You think there are many more proposals in my future, Jack? How many more options do you really think there are for me? Honestly?"

Jack is silent a moment. "You sound like you've already made up your mind."

She sighs heavily. "Why can't you just be happy for me and stop picking holes in everything for once?"

"You didn't answer my question," he murmurs, low.

Liz gives a vague shrug. "I haven't…actually decided. Yet."

Jack draws in a breath, asks gently: "Don't you think if you really wanted to marry this man you'd have made up your mind by now?"

"Not all of us take marriage as lightly as you do," she mutters, her tone softening to add: "And…I dunno, I was hoping…after you got to know him, you'd--"

"What?"

She blinks at him. "Tell me to go for it."

Jack shakes his head. "I can't do that."

"Why?"

"He's not the right man for you. And you know it. You don't need me to tell you that."

"I _don't_ know it," she says, brown eyes flaring. "And what the hell do you know about what I want anyway?"

"Everything," he answers.

"Okay--" she frowns: "that might be true but--"

"He's not the One for you," he repeats insistently. "I saw it the second you walked in with him."

"You can't tell that--"

"Of course I can."

"Tell me why then," she challenges.

Jack just looks at her a moment. "I see the way he looks at you. Or rather, I see the way he doesn't look at you."

Her forehead creases with confusion. "What's that got to do with anything?"

The corner of his mouth lifts in a sad smile. "When a man looks at the woman he loves, his eyes should glow, Lemon. They should light up. Like she's his favourite thing to look at in the whole world, like she's the only person in the room and he can't stand to be near her without touching her. Like he can't believe she is with him, loves him."

Liz shakes her head. "That's…a fantasy, Jack, a stupid fairytale."

"Is it?"

"Look--" She shifts forward in her seat, her tone turning sour: "maybe the women _you_ date might get that. The supermodels and newsreaders or whoever. I don't expect that. No one has ever looked at me like that--"

"Are you sure?" he interjects.

She shoots him a dubious look. "I think I'd notice if someone did."

"You'd think so."

She pauses, eyes narrowing to angry slits. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Jack is silent again, teetering on the verge. His eyes glow furtively, becoming less inscrutable as the silence in the room stretches. Liz stares back at him, a mixture of emotions passing across her face before she abruptly rises, slipping her glasses back on her face.

"I'm leaving," she mumbles. She heads for the door, telling him over her shoulder: "And I think you're insane, by the way."

"Wait." Jack gets to his feet.

"Why?"

"I want you to do for me something first."

She waves a hand, continuing on her path. "I'm not reading it, whatever it is you and your private dick dug up."

"No," Jack says, taking a few steps after her. "I want you to look at something."

"What?"

He reaches the door before her, puts a hand out to stop her opening it. "This."

She turns to face him, her mouth opening on an irritated retort. But it doesn't eventuate. He doesn't silence her with a touch or a single word. He makes her stop with just a look. A look that tells her much more than his words or actions have, more than he's ever told her in four years of friendship. There is no jealousy in the look and no judgement. No confusion and at last, no concealment. There is only one pure, unrestrained and unabashed emotion which she can't believe she's overlooked all this time, she can't believe he's hidden it from her of all people. Especially when, for years, all she really wanted was to be seen by the one man she never thought would see her quite like this.

Jack leans in closer. And when he speaks, his voice is rich with a tenderness she only ever suspected he might hold for her. "Seen enough, Lemon?"

She swallows, lost for words.

Jack just looks at her some more, continues giving her that same overwhelming look with those intense eyes, which at last, are speaking to her in a way she cannot mistake. "Still want to walk out that door?"

Liz takes a deep breath, locates her voice, and replies: "No."

_END._


End file.
